Joseph Wu
A01
Response #9
Why I love my Strict Chinese Mom
I
grew up in a strict Asian household where the stereotypical parenting happened.
I had to play the violin and piano, couldn’t get lower than As, couldn’t play
videogames and have high expectations placed on me. The biggest problem was
that I was really unmotivated. I easily get excited to do something, but if it
doesn’t have any variety or have any instant results, I would immediately get
tired of it and try something else. This was what happened with school. I would
be excited for the school year to start, and I would try my best, but after a
while, it became monotonous and I would start to slack off. Rinse and repeat
every year. My parents were definitely not pleased at this and they would be
furious, but after several years of this happening, I got used to it. Obviously
all the scolding and punishments would have a negative effect on my
self-esteem. Also I wasn’t allowed to hang out with my friends and participate
in activities unless it was going to help my admissions into college. This
really made me socially awkward which didn’t help since I have social anxiety
as well. During junior year and senior year in high school, I created a film
and visual effects group with my friends so we would film movies and short
films after school. This gave me a chance to be more sociable and getting used
to meeting more people. I think after how hard they tried with me, they lowered
their expectations of me. I was allowed to express my artistic and creative
side more under one condition that I still go somewhere into the medical
profession.
I
don’t think that an extreme way of parenting would be good for the children,
yet an extremely relaxed way isn’t the best either. I’ve seen kids that were
restricted from doing anything when they were young, and when they finally got to
college and experienced their first taste of freedom, they went all out and
didn’t care about their studies. The opposite is just as bad as well. I think
for parenting we need to find the happy medium that espouses the importance of
trying hard and getting good grades, and allows the child to experience the
adventures and experiences of being a kid. Will it be possible to have the
child succeed through “Asian parenting” yet allow them to have fun once in a
while?
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